James balleny elkington



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Janus BALLENY ELKINGTON,

Letters Patent N 100,131, dated February or sinninonan, ENGLAND.

22, 1870; palm ml in England November 3. 1865.

IMPROVEMENT m THE MANUFACTURE or corrsn AND IN screams; o'rsrrnz.

METALS- TEEREIROM.

The Schedule referred to in those Letters Patent: and making'plxt of the some iaiued in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:

This invention has for its objectimprovements in the manufacture of copper and in separating other metals therefrom. For this purpose I smell: the copper ore so far as to obtain an impure metal thereli-om, which I then cast into plates, and bymeaus of electricity ll dissolve these plates and deposit the pure copper onto other plates.

The other metals with which the copper was com- I hined, fall for the most part to the bottom of the vesso! in which I operate.

I prefer to employ copper ores which contain sufficieni: silver materially to injure the copper if smelled in the ordinary-way, and which consequently would usually be submitted to a process for extracting the; silver before they are smelted. In such ores frequently the quantity of silver is not such as to pay for the cost of extraction, but the process has nevertheless been necessary when copper of high quality is required, to prevent injury to the copper. These ores are particularly suitable for my use, as the silver they contain, which does not raise their price in the market, is recovered by me without any additional cost.

Ores containing a lnrgerquantity of silver, say from eight ounces to the ton and upwanls, and which are now always submitted to a process for extracting the silver before th'eyarc smelted,cau also be advantageously worked by my process, as, can also ores containing little or no silver, but in "this latter case the advantage of my process over the ordinary process is mainly in the better quality of copper 'which'I obtain. I smell; the use in the usual way, so asto. obtain all its metallic content, except such as may be volatile, in ,the form ol'regulus, from which stage, by preference, but-it is not essential, I carry the metal on to the state of pimple or blister-copper.

' This impure metal I cast into plates, say twenty-- four inches long, eight inches wide, and one inchthiclc.

Ono end'of the plate is provided at'the center with a stout T-shap'e head of wrought copper; it is placed in the mold in which the plate is cast. I

(iast-irou'molds are used; the metal is tapped put of the furnace onto a sand floor, and is led by chan nels into the molds. The plates thus cast are ready to go to the dissolving-house which is 'laidwith a wooden floor inclined from end to end, one-half an inch to the foot. apdsmnll strips or tongues ol' wood are inserted into the grooves, so that there may be no open joints, and the surface is thoroughly saturated and coated with pitch to make it water-tight; The surface of the floor is divided into a number of troughs running from end to end of the building, by ledges of wood fixed-down upon it; these are also saturated with pitch. Each trough is of a width to receive three stone-ware jars side byside. The jars are cylindrical, thirty fourinches high, and eighteen inches wide. There are pathways between the troughs for the workmen who attend to the process. Each trough is tilled from end to end with jars. 'ihere'may he, say, about one hundredja sineach trough, and twelve troughs in the width of the buildiii". may not be injured by the solution which they receive. leach hasa hole in the bottom, closed by a wooden plug; also a hole. in theside four inches from thebottom, and another holodiametricallyopposite to the first, and four inches from the top.

The jars are set up level on the inclined floor, with wooden wedges saturatedhvith pitch. Thejarsare connected together from the upper to the lower end ofthe room, each jar-having a pipe passingout from l 1 it-at the hole near the top and entering t-hc'n'eit't jar below atthe hole near the bottom.

The connections with the jars are made with volcanized India rubber, and intermediate of the conncctions the pipes may be of lead, and about one-halt inch internal diameter.

The solution which I employ is water charged with aslmuch sulphate of copper as iii-will dissolve. The sulphate of copper ofcommerce may be used, or for economy, I sometimes use a solution obtained by boiling the deposit; found in the culvert or long line by which the smoke from the copper-furnace is led to the high chimney; this will furnish a. solution of sulphate of copper'sutiiciently pure for the purpose.

The solution is stored in a tank at the upper end of the dissolving-room; itis admitted into the uppermost jars, and runs from jar to jar, until those at the lower end of the 'buildingare filled. Clips are putupon the India-rubber connections to stop the vflow through the tubes when the jars are full, and so to maintain the solution at the proper level in thc'upper jars.

When the process is in operation, two clips are taken 1 oil, say once in twenty-four hours, so as to cause the solution-to flow through all the jars, and transfer tl The boards are grooved on their edges,

The jars should be of fire-clayware, so that they.-

solution from thebottom of one jar to the top of the next, so asthoroughly to mix it, asin working it tends to become weak at the top of thejar. This means of readily equalizing the density of the solution is of greatpracticahimpoi'tance. Atthe lower end of the room is a tank to receive the solution. When it is thus allowed to run through, it is pumped back into theupper reservoir.

The same tank receives thecontents of .the jars' when they are emptied onto the floor beneath by the removal of we bottom: plug, as hereinafter described. In the gangavays between the floor-troughs, a truck .runs to carry the cast-copper plates to the jars in which they are to be dissolved. Six metal plates are suspended in each jar; they are hung in couples from. the horizontal copper bars, having forks upon them to receive the T-ibrm heads of the plates. These bars rest at their ends on other bars of wood laid on the jars, so as each to extend across arow of three jars,

and the same bars also support over each jar two other metal crossbars to support plates to receive the deposit of copper from the solution.

There are four receiving-plates in a jar, two suspended from .each bar, The y are interposed between the cast plates.

Conducting-strips of sheet-copper are laid upon the wooden bars,.so as to couple the cast plates of one jar to the receiving-platesot' the next jar, and so throughcopper is-obtained,--thegutta-percha is stripped o5 y the copper left to receive a further deposit. A series of, say. onehundred jars being thus Eoupled up into a circuit, 1 connect to the terminals of the series one ormore electro-magnetic machines. I prefer to employ the machines manufactured by Messrs; H. Welde 8t 00., of Manchester. I

The machines, called by the makers three-and-ahalf-inch machines, are those which 1' use, and I drive them at twenty-five hundred revolutions per minute. With. three such machines working into a series of one hundred jars, a deposition of four or five pounds of copper in each jar may be obtained in twenty-four hours without injury to the solution. When the east plates become so far dissolved as to be nufitfor further .use, they are removed.

Their remains are washed in the lower solution tank to remove the deposit from their surfaces, and they are melted and recast. i

The wrought T-heads may he .used an indefinite number of times, as 1 protect them from solution by coating their stems with wax.

The receding-plates are allowed to grow until they attain a convenient weight; they may either be melted and cast into cakes and afterwards rolled in the usual the vats may be sent into the market The. solution may be worked for a very long time, evaporation being supplied .by the addition of water aoidulated slightly with sulphuric acid, ultimately will become so charged with sulphate otiron as to make it inconvenient to work it further. it, however, the' metal be advanced to the pimple or blister stage "bcfore casting the plates, it will take butl ittle iron into the solution.

'lhe'silver or other metals, excepting the iron, with which ,the copper of the cast plates was contaminated, sinks to the bottom of the jars, and is there allowed to accumulate until it reaches the lower side hole. \Vhen this happens the bottom plugs are taken out of tank at the end of the building; here they settle. From time to time, the tank is pumped dryand thesediment is taken out. There are two .such tanks at the lower end oi'the room, to allow of one being put out of use for emptying.

The sediment may he treated in any ordinary and well-known manner, for the recovery of the silver it contains, and other metals may be separated from it, should it be considered desirable todo so. I

Having thus described the nature of my said invenhave it understood that,

: What 1 claim as my improvement in the manufacture of copper and in separating other metals therefrom, isi pure metal therefi'om, then casting the same into plates. and byg'peans of electricity dissolving these plates and depositing the pure copper onto other plates, whilst a pulveru-lent state.

with its inclined water-tight floor draining into a tank 7 at its lower end, and with the dissolving apparatus ar ranged thereon, substantially as herein described.

Also, so arranging the apparatus that a flow of the the bott-onrof one jar to the top of the next, so that the solution may be prevented tiom settling into different layers of difi'erent strengths.

Also, the use as described, of a solution prepared by boilingand washing the deposit from the furnace-eulvert.

' Also, the smelting ores containing eight ounces of silver or more to the ton of ore, so as to obtain the silver and copper in the metallic form and alloyed together, and then separating the metals by dissolving and redepositing the copper by means of electricity.

JAMES B. ELKINGTON.

Witnesses G. F. WARREN, 'llnos. Bnowrv,

way of working copper, or the plates as they come from,

all the jars of the series, andthe contents washed out into the floor trough, which'discl-iarges them into the i 'tion, and the manner of pertbrming the same, I would The smelting copper ore so far as to obtain an imthe-metals with which it was contaminated are left in'" Also, the general arrangement ofthe dissolving-house solution may he established from time to time from i 

